Since its launch, it has been heavily attended by Hollywood executives, directors, producers, and studio heads, as well as filmmakers and actors from all over the world.
[4] As China's box office has expanded exponentially over the past decade, the festival aims to provide a high-profile forum for the interaction between the Chinese and the international film industries.
Hundreds of domestic and foreign films are screened at dozens of participating cinemas in Beijing during this event.
Notable international guest speakers at the 2012 festival including James Cameron,[7] who unveiled the details of the upcoming Avatar sequels at the film festival;[7] Jim Gianopulos,[8] Jeremy Renner, Tom DeSanto, Jon Landau, who were there to discuss co-productions between Hollywood and Chinese film studios.
Notable guests at the 2013 festival includes Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy,[9] Paul Hanneman,[9] Keanu Reeves,[9] and Peter Chan.
[9] Luc Besson, Jean-Jacques Annaud, and Wolfgang Petersen also discussed their upcoming co-productions in China at the festival.
[9] The 2014 festival saw Jean Reno, Alfonso Cuaron,[10] Paramount Pictures COO Frederick Huntsberry,[11] Oliver Stone, MPAA president Christopher Dodd, Peter Del Vecho, Carlos Saldanha, John Woo,[12] Timur Bekmambetov, Peter Ziering, Andres Vicente Gomez, Rajkumar Hirani and Jim Sheridan.
[13] The festival also saw a large representation from the BFI, the British Film Commission and BBC, who are aiming for a closer co-production agreement with China.
The 2016 festival saw Natalie Portman,[17] and Christoph Waltz[18] as well as Brett Ratner, Sam Raimi, Yojiro Takita, Giuseppe Tornatore and Iain Smith attend the event in April.
The 11th Beijing International Film Festival, which was originally scheduled for August 14 to 21, and postponed in the aftermath of COVID-19, was held from the 21 to 29 September 2021.